When being older doesn't equal being wiser

So of the several hockey teams I play for right now, I quit my favorite one yesterday. This is a team that really has failed to live up to its potential, largely due to the quality players on its roster being duped into a bad situation.

Some of the closest friendships I have made in MD came out of pick up hockey with my “Alpha” boys, named after a park we frequent. We were all recruited to play on a team promised to have been middle of the pack the year before, and bringing other good players in to assist us. Well that roughly translated to “A goalie who blows and three guys who hack, whack, and throw sticks but not much else.” Needless to say, despite my boys’ efforts, we ended up 1-2-1 after yesterday’s game and our second game where we should have won.

Now my effort that game was far from my best, and that was the first thing I mentioned post game, but I then also called out the moronic penalties like slew footing, knee to knee hitting, and stick throwing that our “Older veteran” players committed. Well one middle aged stick thrower had enough of my comments then, told me I couldn’t score (leading the team in goals, top 3 in the league), that he had twice the experience I did (20 years in beer leagues does not equate to NARCh, gold level, or college hockey experience) and I had to shut up. Well I did shut up until I walked out, said I quit, and when they played real hockey and not street hockey, I’d come back.

Now I got home, cooled down and immediately sent our captain the text that I was sorry and would see him Sunday. I talked to one of my boys and said I was sorry and would not abandon them, no matter how much I hated the others. Well the brilliant goalie/captain didn’t care and cut me, offering up the nice lie that “The entire team said I had to go.” Well that was nice considering my 4 boys were never asked and immediately petitioned to keep me. I even sucked up all my pride, and said I was sorry, thankfully stopping short of begging. Unfortunately the older “more experienced” guys don’t have humility of their own and chose to let their top scorer go.

Now I feel really bad not because I am off of a last place team, but because I have left my great friends to fend for themselves, and I am unable to help them. To make matters worse, I am in talks to join competing teams. What can I say, the concept of coming back right before the playoffs and lighting that dickhead up in net for 6 goals really sounds good right now.

Sorry Alpha boys, we’ll have our own team next year.

Whats fair in war is not in hockey

So I had my first game with my second in-line hockey team tonight. I've been having a good spring thus far, a resurgence of my in-line hockey career if you will. Towards the end of my MSU days it all finally clicked for me; I understood how to play better, shoot better and that it wasn't all about speed. It's a complete testament to guys like Mack, Howard and the A team that I improved at all. So moving down here and developing my physique and game every weekend has really made me happy on the rink and I've had at least personal success on the high level talent team even though we're 1-2, and I was set to shine in the beer league tonight.

We had an interesting game, we lost 7-5, and I scored 4 times. I had a pretty shitty game, really shoulda banked 8, but I was not mentally in it tonight and I'm sporting a 13 inch bruise on my thigh from a blocked shot last week. I had fun though, these guys are great beer leaguers, good men, fun to be with. And this is what pisses me off.

The referee comes up to me during the game and invites me to play on his team one level up on Wednesdays. I respectfully say thank you and I would be interested, but I'm really broke and can't afford to pay to play more. He said we'll discuss it after the game. So afterward I walk to the score keeper and ask him to jot my number down for the ref, and he responds "Yea, we need to move you out of this league, it isn't fair." Now this is where I am confused and hope its a communication error. If I'm being told I have to leave so this guy gets me on his team since I won't pay more to play, thats bullshit. We didn't even win this game. Granted I can play much better, but thats not the point. Politics may belong in the NHL or even elite in-line leagues, but not in beer league. When I score 10 and we mercy teams, then you can tell me to leave, don't try and yank me for yourself after 1 game. You'll find me missing the net a lot more than you did in this league if you catch my drift.

I wanna get bruised by you

I have not had Mountain Dew in like 3 months. I mean seriously, who remembers when I had 3 a day? I wonder if I'll live 15 years longer now. Or maybe I'll be able to have kids. Either way this one tastes pretty good right now.

I just woke up from a nap so this whole rant will be particularly scattered I think. I have been pretty pissed this last week over some trash talked about me back home by ex coworkers, something I didn't provoke or deserve as far as I can figure out. I just don't get it sometimes. Drama never followed me (outside of the girls I dated) so why would this evolve when I left? I don't care too much, I have no real friends at that t-shirt shop so I don't care what they think of me, but motive intrigues me. I don't know if the rumors arise out of boredom, hate, jealousy? The day or two I flipped over it was a waste of energy as so many friends quickly chimed in to assure me on fbook, friends who while I don't talk to them but 3 messages a year digitally, pop in just when I need them and deliver a cyber high five.

Someone made the comment to me this week that I should be proud of being a self made man. I am very proud of where I am, I am very proud of what I have been through and what my "kids so bright we're gonna need shades" future holds. I however am not a self made man at all. I was never wealthy, but I was overrun with positive role models in my life, it was gluttony at best. My parents, brother, my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, my best friends, teachers, bosses, teammates, and cats. Seriously, I was taught how to go do the work I must, how to get into and through school, how to develop my skills, get through grad school, and find this job. A self made man has no one and no money, I am a community made man and everything I ever do will be because of them.

Max Bemis can really write songs. I don't know how his brain is wired. Yes he has been hospitalized for mental disorders and flipping out, but whatever drives that also drives his incredible prose. Out of nowhere his lyrics pull u-turns, sharp jabs, or little jokes. I am particularly enamored with the yellow disc out of Say Anything's two disc set, and I think you should be as well.

I was jacking cars when it was still a top down world

Actually my little brother introduced me to the GTA series back when we played video games in his blotchy grey carpeted room, on his little PS1. The glory days of top down car stealing goodness were bliss. How could you imagine the real 3D, damn near philosophically correct version we would be playing now in GTA 4?

I picked it up yesterday, snagging the second to last xbox copy Best Buy had (plenty of PS3 ones abound) and went home to play. I had soon decided this was the best game ever. How soon? I wasn't even done with the opening cinematic sequence. The art and sound design was already bigger than Iron Man will be today. R* just has class when creating.

Now I am not going to review the game, I am not a review site. If you want professional opinions on it, go read the 4 month long coverage Kotaku gave it. What I will do is assure my mother that she was one of the good parents, and these violent games make me giggle like a school girl yes, but they do not turn me into a chainsaw wielding cop killer because I was given common sense at a young age. And second, I want to push all of you to buy it because its awesome and I would enjoy playing cops n crooks with you like I did Billy Bop last night.

Trust me, you'll be seeing the lil IV icon over there on my Xbox Live tag for many a month coming up.

Minutes till inevitability

So I have really fallen for the new Linkin Park album Minutes Till Midnight. I really did not expect this to happen and I think I kind of even mentally positioned myself against such a desire to own another LP album.

It's not that I fell away as a fan from LP as much as I was over exposed. They really wrote what, like 25 songs, and then remixed them into 1,432 other versions over 15 other albums. I just did not dig that.

Well now after hearing Shadow of the Day and falling totally in love with it, I Pandora-ed (I think I made a new verb there) LP and heard a couple other tracks. Valentines Day is really solid and I think the whole album really deserves a lot of cred for exploring a wide array of composition and genres. I again am a fan.